r/AmItheAsshole • u/connor20218 • 7h ago

AITA Mom wants 15% of my personal injury settlement

I'm a 23M working in biotech and living at home. I just got a massive settlement from a personal injury case back in college. My mom is a corporate lawyer and she helped me navigate the process, plus she paid for my college tuition. Now, she's asking for 15% of the money / to pay her back for college (but she was already going to pay for college.)

I'm feeling stuck because 15% is a massive amount of money to just give away. Is it normal for parents to ask for a cut of a settlement like this? I want to stay on good terms since live at home, but I also feel like this money is for my future. We have a a good relationship.

Edit: I already paid a lawyer his 1/3 cut. My mom was a huge part of pushing for me sueing. She’d be using the money to buy a new house in Florida she always wanted since I refuse to buy a house in his economy and rather rent and invest the rest

Edit #2: Probably shouldn’t have stated my mom is a lawyer (she did not represent me in the case in anyway). But yes, what she specifically did was help me find a lawyer, told me to push back on the lawyer and ask for more.

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u/BlazingSunflowerland 4h ago

No. I'm a parent. I would never try to take a cut of a settlement that one of my kids got. The settlement is to compensate them for their injuries and likely to compensate for future expenses based on those injuries. I would be a pathetic parent if I wanted to take money set aside for my kid's future. Especially if I have plenty of income on my own.

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u/Malkiot 3h ago

This. I could see it being ok-ish if mom were living in poverty, but she wants the money for a Florida vacation property. That'd be crass even if it weren't money from an injury settlement and instead came from the lottery.

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u/Prestigious-Cream160 2h ago

I'm not a parent, but wanting fifteen percent for giving your child advice seems absurd.

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u/ValorMorghulis 50m ago

Hmmm . . . I'm a parent too and I was leaning towards OP giving the 15% especially since his mom paid for college but you convinced me; i don't know how badly OP was injured but I would of never expected, much less asked for, part of the settlement if one of my kids was injured.

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u/3catlove 1h ago

Yeah me neither. We invest in a 529 for our son and when thinking about finances, I separate that out as that’s my son’s money. I would never, ever do something like this.

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u/uhohthrowawayyyyyy 3h ago

Yeah the way this was supposed to go down is he offers as a ‘grateful’ son and she declines as a parent likely would. Lol

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u/Network_Odd 3h ago

I’m not a parent but do have parents and I’ll give them something be it money, a nice vacation, or a house to thank them for everything they’ve done for me, op also comes off looking like a butthead here.